Tea houses learn to infuse ancient with modern

Here is an article by a Chinese newspaper about teahouses in China that may have been partially plagiarized by the Indian paper. It talks directly about the teahouse business in Beijing. Beijing is a long way from the tea producing areas of China and the teahouse focus in the past has been performances of Beijing opera, drinking tea being secondary. The tea was not very good, mostly poor quality jasmine tea, which was cheap and didn’t need to be fresh. Of course the high government officials in Beijing were consuming very good quality tea, the public didn’t have access to most of that tea. Tea was not as important a part of culture in the north as it was in the south of China. The booming economy is changing all of that and Beijing is full of disposable income. I was in Beijing 7 or 8 years ago and was being served very good high mountain Taiwanese tea by one of the new rich, that being the best tea available for sell in Beijing, but I imagine now a days I would get some very good puer or green tea or some WuYi mountain oolong, or at least another mainland produced tea. As the Chinese rediscovers the luxuries of fine culture, they are rediscovering their own tea culture along with French wines and sushi bars. (They never lost track of the Peking Duck.)

The first cup kisses away my thirst,
and my loneliness is quelled by the second.
The third gives insight worthy of ancient scrolls,
and the fourth exiles my troubles.
My body becomes lighter with the fifth,
and the sixth sends word from immortals.
But the seventh —oh the seventh cup— if I drink you,
a wind will hurry my wings toward the sacred island.